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What Students Think: Does Video Gaming Belong In Schools?

We’re nearing the end of our video game design unit, and along the way, students have been writing to reflect on the experience. (Although next year, I want to give them a separate game developer’s log in order to make that reflection more consistent). The other day, as part of a series of questions and after reading two argumentative pieces (for and against video gaming), I asked them: Does video gaming belong in the classroom?

Here are some of their replies:

“I would say yes because it could inspire kids to make their own games. It may also give kids an opportunity to make a good choice, if they like games or don’t like games. But they can also be a distraction.” — C.B.

“Video games should be used in school. It would help kids with their coordination and keep their brains active while still having fun. They could also be used as a reward to kids who finish classwork. That would get kids to try a lot harder in classes. Kids need something fun to do in school, so why not video games? — K.J.

“No (video games should not be in school) because not many games are oriented towards education so it would be kind of useless.” — N.P.

“I think video games should be used in schools for many different reasons. Reason one is that students would be excited to go to cl;ass and they would get used to using technology.” — B.P.

“Yes, and no. Video games can be educational and a great way to connect with the technology of today. On the other hand, kids play tons of video games at home and maybe it would be a bad idea to add to that time (on the screen).” — A.B.

“Yes. It can help you learn and teach you many things. It also helps you learn how to use technology.” — D.D.

“I think video games should be used in schools. I believe this because kids will get a lot of knowledge and experience about problem-solving and having fun. Also, you can learn how to fail in video games because it can be so challenging.” — A.C.

“No, because some kids would be thinking about playing them 24/7 and some would not pay attention in class.” — G.T.

“Certain video games should be used in school because they teach kids how to lose and how to be patient. They might also make kids enjoy school because some kids don’t like school.” — A.N.

“I think it depends on what game it is. Games that are appropriate should be used because kids want to play games and it would be easy to get kids to learn if it were in games. But if the games aren’t appropriate, then they shouldn’t be in school.” — N.T.

“I totally think video games should be in school because writing with a boring, old, useless pencil is plain junk, but when you add technology and video games into the learning, it makes classtime much more fun and for the people who don’t like the video games, they could just bring their own pencil.” — K.R.

“Yes, I think video games should be used in school, but only ones that help learning and teach things, of course. Video games can inspire people to do things in life.” — H.M.

“No. Video games can be bad for you, and are addictive.” — S.M.

You can see the wide array of ideas here, which I think are reflective of personal choices, experiences and the two pieces that we read about the pros and cons of gaming.